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Approximately 21 million around the globe are victims of modern slavery, a number that has grown significantly over the last year as a result of the escalating migrant crisis in Europe, reveals an annual study from global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

According to the Modern Slavery Index (MSI) now in its second year modern slavery risks have risen in nearly three quarters of the 28 member states of the European Union. The five EU countries posing the highest risk are Romania, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Bulgaria key points of entry into the region for migrants who are extremely vulnerable to exploitation.

The research, which assesses 198 countries on the strength of their laws, the effectiveness of their enforcement and the severity of violations, shows drops in the scores for 20 countries across the bloc.

The slavery situation in Romania is deemed as deteriorating faster than any country globally, with it falling 56 places in the ranking to 66th highest risk. Romania and Italy (ranked 133rd), which fell 16 places, have the worst reported violations in the EU, including severe forms of forced labor, such as servitude and trafficking.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that over 100,000 migrants have entered Europe by sea in 2017; 85 percent of which have landed in Italy. Arrivals in Greece (129th) have fallen dramatically since the 2016 signing of the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement, but the country, which dropped 17 places in the index, is host to significant numbers of migrants and remains a key destination for human trafficking.

According to Verisk Maplecroft, the presence of these vulnerable migrant populations in the primary countries of arrival is a key contributor for increases in slavery across multiple sectors in the region, such as agriculture, construction and services.

Due to the geographic shift in migrant sea arrivals, the report suggests that the risk of modern slavery is likely to worsen in Italy over the next year, with agriculture being a major sector of concern.

The migrant crisis has increased the risk of slavery incidents appearing in company supply chains across Europe, said Sam Haynes, Senior Human Rights Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. It is no longer just the traditional sourcing hotspots in the emerging economies that businesses should pay attention to when risk assessing their suppliers and the commodities they source.

Even the EUs biggest economies are not immune to the rise in slavery risk. Germany and the UK have seen slight negative shifts in their scores, taking them just over the low risk threshold into the medium risk category of the index. New data has revealed gaps in the UKs labor inspectorate, while Germany has experienced an uptick in recorded trafficking and servitude violations.

Outside the EU, Turkey experienced the worlds second largest drop in the Modern Slavery Index, falling from 110th to 58th most at risk and slipping into the high risk category. The influx of 100,000s of refugees from the Syrian civil war, combined with Turkeys restrictive work permit system, has led to thousands becoming party of the informal workforce. Policing labor violations is also no longer a priority for the government, which is focused on the political crackdown, further adding to the risk.

US MSI performance was also mediocre with a medium risk ranking of 135, dangerously close to the high risk threshold. The ranking is partially due to a recent crackdown on undocumented migrants coming to the US.

Hardline strategies such as deportation and immigration bans, however, do not offer effective or sustainable solutions for curbing forced labor and human trafficking. According to Alexandra Channer, Principal Human Rights Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, eliminating modern slavery will require going to the root of the problem and addressing the drivers of illegal immigration. Failure to do so could further aggravate the problem.

Policies that increase the costs of trafficking, such as tighter enforcement of deportation rules and restricting the protections offered by sanctuary cities, will push undocumented migrants further into the hands of the criminal gangs involved in border trafficking and the procurement of undocumented workers, Channer told Quartz ahead of the 2017 MSI release.

Migrants will be ever more dependent on trafficking networks for survival and fewer will report entrapment and labor abuses to the authorities for fear of deportation. Increases in such violations pose a risk to companies sourcing goods from the US, especially from the agricultural sector, as well as within the services industry.

In Asia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand the regions manufacturing hubs all landed in the Modern Slavery Indexs extreme or high risk categories. Thailand and India both demonstrated significant improvement, thanks to increases in the enforcement of slavery related laws, but slavery still remains a significant problem. In India, severe forms of slavery are common in construction, brick kilns, garment production, manufacturing and farming; while in Thailand, the worst abuses still frequently occur in sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, fishing and rubber production.

Intensive government activity will be required in India and Thailand if these green shoots of progress are to turn into a positive trajectory, said Hannah Broscombe, Asia Supply Chain Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

China, ranked 21st in the index, remains firmly entrenched among the worst performing countries in the extreme risk category. North Korea, Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, DR Congo, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Eritrea and Turkmenistan are rated by the Modern Slavery Index as posing the highest risk of all countries measured.

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Report: Migrant Crisis Escalating European Modern Slavery Risk - Sustainable Brands

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Migrant crisis: Spain arrivals triple compared with 2016 BBC News Three times as many migrants have arrived in Spain so far this year compared to the same period in 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says. It means the number of sea arrivals in Spain - at 8,385 - could overtake Greece, which has ... and more »

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Migrant crisis: Spain arrivals triple compared with 2016 - BBC News

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In a hard-hitting plea socialist leader Gianni Pittella called on EU leaders to start taking the situation in his home country more seriously or it could grow to threaten the whole future of the bloc.

He said Eastern European countries point blank refusal to take in refugees under the clubs quota scheme was unacceptable and backed calls to strip them of their Brussels funding.

And the Italian MEP, president of the Socialist and Democrat grouping in the EU parliament, warned that unless the migration issue is sorted it will simply harden divisions and rip the bloc apart.

The EU has been grown into chaos by the recent upsurge in arrivals to Italy, which has exposed stark differences within the different member states over how to deal with mass migration.

Eastern European countries like Hungary and Poland have predictably refused to take in any asylum seekers, but Rome has been alarmed at the extent to which it has also been abandoned to its fate by key players like France and Germany.

With newly elected Emmanuel Macron keen to strike a tough tone on migration as he looks to win over supporters of Marine Le Pen, and Angela Merkel facing her own election battle in September, little help has been on offer.

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Austrian, meanwhile, even threatened to deploy its armed forces to the Alpine border with Italy in order to seal it off if there was a fresh jump in the number of arrivals over the summer.

As a result Italy has been forced to take things into its own hands, with Rome threatening to shut its ports to migrant boats and targeting NGO rescue vessels it accuses of colluding with people smugglers to aid illegal migration.

Mr Pittella said that despite warnings from the Italian government, most EU member state continue to ignore the situation and said the political will to act on migration had disappeared with the front page headlines.

Writing for EUobserver, he warned: Hundreds of thousands of migrants that have been rescued by the Italian navy and are now waiting in reception centres or being housed by local authorities, many of which are stretched to their limits."

We are reaching another tipping point

Gianni Pittella

He told EU leaders: Ultimately, if we do not adapt the rules and structures of our migration policy, so that all member states share responsibility and have an interest in addressing the issue, then divisions will harden between those that face the brunt of the crisis and those who ignore it.

We are reaching another tipping point. If we continue with the failed approach of the last two years then this could become a systemic crisis that threatens the EU itself.

Mr Pittella said it was simply not acceptable that EU leaders have put off a special summit on the issue of migration until the Autumn, saying it shows they are not taking the problem seriously.

And he called for radical reform including a centralised European asylum policy that allocates refugees, but also so-called economic migrants, in a fair and transparent way.

Such a system would make the relocation system permanent, with sanctions for member states that refuse to take their fair share of refugees but would be vociferously opposed especially by Eastern Europe.

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The Italian MEP wrote: Demographic changes, continuing instability in the Middle East and North Africa, and long-term issues such as poverty and climate change mean that large-scale migration to Europe is going to be a fact for decades to come.

We are a continent of 500 million people and one of the richest regions of the planet the arrival of a few hundred thousand refugees and migrants is manageable if we organise ourselves effectively.

It is clear this is the only viable option, yet certain national governments are still actively undermining any attempts to fix the system.

This is most evident in Hungary, where prime minister Victor Orban is demonising migrants and the EU to try and bolster his flagging poll numbers. We cannot allow this to continue.

More than 100,000 people have arrived in Italy already this year, with EU leaders and officials saying that the vast majority are economic migrants who will not qualify for asylum.

Eurocrats and leaders including Angela Merkel have promised to speed up the rate of deportations to tackle the crisis, whilst plans are also being floated for the establishment of EU camps within Libya.

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Migrant crisis - Italian MEP warns refugee arrivals threaten EU's ... - Express.co.uk

Three Spanish civil guards and dozens of police officers were left injured as they tried to stop the arrival of an estimated 1,000 sub-Saharans migrants.

The violent clashes came as migrants attempted to storm the borders of Spain's two enclaves in northern Africa, Ceuta and Melilla.

It comes a day after more than 100 migrants ran through one gate in the fence usually used as a border control.

REUTERS

And on Tuesday, dozens of sub-Saharan immigrants launched an assault on the border perimeter separating the autonomous city of Ceuta from Morocco at 6 am.

On this occasion, Moroccan authorities ensured that only around 300 immigrants managed to reach the border fence, where they were stopped by agents of the Civil Guard.

The Civil Guard Command of Ceuta reported large groups of sub-Saharan migrants throwing rocks and sticks in frustration in a bid to cross the border.

Getty Images

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Aid workers help migrants up the shore after making the crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos on November 16, 2015 in Sikaminias, Greece

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They were also reportedly armed with rudimentary spears and sharp objects.

The fresh attempt comes just 24 hours after 187 migrants reached Spanish territory following a rush across the border.

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Many migrants try to enter Spain as a means of reaching other parts of Europe.

Arrivals through Ceuta and Melilla, as well as the number of migrants attempting to cross into Spain by sea from North Africa has risen this year, although the route between Libya and Italy remains the most popular.

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MIGRANT CRISIS: 1000 storm Spanish border fence in second day of chaos - Express.co.uk

African migrant workers harvest tomatoes in farmlands in Puglia. Analysts said the risk of labour exploitation is likely to worsen in Italy over the next year, with agriculture a key sector of concern. Photograph: ROPI/Alamy

The migrant crisis has increased the risk of slavery and forced labour tainting supply chains in three-quarters of EU countries over the past year, researchers have found.

Romania, Italy, Cyprus and Bulgaria all key entry points into Europe for migrants vulnerable to exploitation were identified by risk analysts as particularly vulnerable to slavery and forced labour.

The annual modern slavery index, produced by Verisk Maplecroft, assessed the conditions that make labour exploitation more likely. Areas covered by the index include national legal frameworks and the severity, and frequency, of violations.

Countries outside Europe, such as North Korea and South Sudan, were judged to be at the greatest risk of modern slavery, but the researchers said the EU showed the largest increase in risk of any region over the past year.

In the past, the slavery story has been in supply chains in countries far away, like Thailand and Bangladesh, said Dr Alexandra Channer, a human rights analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. But it is now far closer to home and it is something that consumers, governments and businesses in the EU have to look out for. With the arrival of migrants, who are often trapped in modern slavery before they enter the workplace, the vulnerable population is expanding.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that 21 million people worldwide are subject to some form of slavery.

The biggest global increase in the risk of slavery was in Romania, which rose 56 places in the index and is the only EU country classified as high risk.

Turkey came a close second, moving up 52 places, from medium risk to high risk. The influx of hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing war, combined with Turkeys restrictive work permit system, has led to thousands of refugees becoming part of an informal workforce, said the study.

The government, which is focused on political crackdown, does not prioritise labour violations, further adding to the risk. Over the past year, several large brands from Turkish textile factories have been associated with child labour and slavery.

The picture in Romania is more complex, researchers said. The countrys high risk category reflects more severe and frequent instances of modern slavery, but also reflects a greater number of criminal investigations in Romania, usually in collaboration with EU enforcement authorities.

Both Romania and Italy, which rose 17 places, have the worst reported violations in the EU, including severe forms of forced labour such as servitude and trafficking, the study said.

The EU, on average, remains at medium risk of modern slavery, the index said.

It found that even the EUs largest economies were not immune. The UK, which introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2016, has experienced a slight negative shift in its scores, moving from low risk to medium.

It is marginal change, but the driver in the UK is [lack of] enforcement, said Channer.

She said that while there have been positive changes in the UK, such as the expanded powers and remit of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, new data revealed gaps in the UKs labour inspectorate. In Germany, which has also experienced an upward shift in its score, there was an increase in recorded trafficking and servitude violations.

A Guardian report this week revealed that the modern-day slave trade has taken root in Britain, with multiple trials exposing how Sports Direct had unwittingly used slave labour.

More than 100,000 migrants entered Europe by sea in the first seven months of 2017, 82% of whom landed in Italy, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Arrivals in Greece have fallen since the EU-Turkey deal, but the country is host to significant numbers of migrants. It rose 16 places in the index.

Due to the geographical shift in migrant sea arrivals, analysts expect the risk of modern slavery to worsen in Italy over the next year, with agriculture a major sector of concern.

The five worst countries globally, rated at extreme risk of modern slavery, were North Korea, Syria, South Sudan, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The chief manufacturing hubs of Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand all featured in the extreme or high risk categories. However, India and Thailand have improved their scores, due to better efforts to enforce slavery-related laws.

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Migrant crisis triggers heightened risk of slavery in EU supply chains ... - The Guardian